Havells bags $20-million European orders

Electrical products maker Havells India has bagged a $200-million export order from West European countries to supply motors and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) over a period of five years, joint managing director Anil Gupta said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters visiting the company's plant at Neemrana in Rajasthan, Gupta said Havells plans to make India a global manufacturing and export hub and intends to export half its total production of CFLs, motors and switchgears to Europe in the near future.

''This plant has been set up keeping the European markets in mind. The company intends to export nearly half of the total production of the plant to the European Union countries. Out of the total exports, about $150 million would come from the CFL unit and the balance $50 million from its motor manufacturing unit at the plant,'' Gupta, said.

Mentioning that the company has invested close to Rs150 crore in the plant, Gupta said, ''We may look at exporting products to the East European nations in future, but will concentrate on the existing export markets as of now.''

Havells India, which acquired international lighting products maker SLI Sylvania in 2007, has shut down the UK-based CFL plant and the entire production has been shifted to Neemrana. The company has also consolidated existing Indian units which produced energy efficient lighting products in Faridabad and Haridwar.

The consolidation was being done to create a single manufacturing hub and thereby build efficiencies, reducing the high cost of production in foreign countries during the economic downturn, Gupta said.

He added that post-consolidation, the Neemrana plant will make four million units of CFLs a month, double of what it produces currently, besides 20,000 motors per month, making it India's largest company in the field. The motors find applications in the power, steel, sugar, cement, paper and plastic sectors.

Besides restructuring the CFL plants, the company is also in the process of consolidating manufacturing operations for switchgears within the country. The company is set to merge its switchgear plant based in Delhi with the one located at Baddi, taking the latter's total capacity to 60 million units from 48 million currently.